Letter: Where are the deficit hawks?

Sunday

Sep 2, 2018 at 7:30 AM

For decades, Republicans have accused everyone but themselves of “tax and spend.” They say the country's deficit is unsustainable, telling us to “Balance the budget!”

The Federal Office of Management and Budget projects that the deficit for fiscal 2019 will be $1.085 trillion. Within 10 years, it is projected that our national debt will equal our GDP, meaning every single dollar this country creates has to be used to pay back someone else, leaving nothing for defense, education, healthcare, infrastructure maintenance, not even military parades.

Other examples of this practice of unlimited borrowing, financed by printing money, as this country is now doing, can be found in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Venezuela's inflation rate, projected by the International Monetary Fund, will reach 1 million percent by the end of this year. Venezuela's national debt is 23 percent of its GDP in 2017.

Zimbabwe stopped printing its currency due to excessive inflation, and switched to the United States dollar. If the United States of America experiences excessive inflation, are we to switch to the Russian ruble or the Chinese yuan?

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome H. Powell, says the current fiscal policy is on an “unsustainable path.” All the advanced economies of the world are projected to reduce their debt-to-GDP ration in the next five years, except this country, where we are increasing our debt-to-GDP ration.

Where are those Republican deficit hawks now that the country needs them?

Dixie Rich

Milford

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